Friday, January 07, 2011

The US Has The Safest Food Supply In The World

"The US (or any single nation) has the safest food supply in the world."

In a global food market, as we have, this statement is meaningless.

Right now 4700 livestock farms in Germany, mainly pig and poultry, have been closed after animal feed was found to be contaminated with dioxin:

Dioxin Animal Feed Scare Shuts German Farms, BBC, January 7

What's grown in Germany stays in Germany?

"The eggs had been sent to the Netherlands for processing and then on to the UK (as a 14-tonne consignment of pasteurized product ) where they were likely to be destined for use in the production of a variety of food stuffs including mayonnaise and pastries....The dioxin scare has prompted South Korea to block imports of German pork and poultry products."

This is a very big contamination issue involving over 3000 tons of feed. There have been and will be thousands of chickens and pigs killed and their products recalled - or not, the level of dioxin being pronounced too low to cause health problems. I can't imagine some of the discards won't end up in internationally-sold pet food.

What w/ the shootings in AZ, I haven't kept up w/ the fish and birds & possible causes. But it just struck me as unlikely that within 3 days, birds would experience large die-offs in places as disparate as Louisiana, Italy, and Sweden, and the fish in several U.S. locations and the Atlantic coast of England. Unlikely, that is, unless there is some more specific cause than "loud noise," as these didn't all happen on New Year.